Toking tourism is real: 20 marijuana-themed souvenirs from the Rockies

As state officials crunch numbers to determine the legitimacy of marijuana tourism, we found proof of tourists’ cannabis curiosity on the streets of Steamboat Springs, Colo. — a popular mountain resort in the Rocky Mountains.

As we walked the ever-scenic streets of Steamboat earlier this week, we noticed something in the touristy souvenir shops that we’d never seen on previous trips here: T-shirts, cups, hats, magnets, ashtrays, stickers and cold-weather gear branded with Colorado marijuana.

Toking tourism, indeed.

“There are definitely people asking for this kind of merchandise,” Joe Kboudi, who was working at the River Blue souvenir shop earlier this week, told The Cannabist on Tuesday, referencing a slickly produced green cross sticker on the store’s shelves. “Tourists like this merchandise, and they’re also always coming in here asking where the (recreational) pot shops are at.”

Ricardo Baca is the founder and editor of The Cannabist, legal marijuana's paper of record and a division of The Denver Post. Fortune magazine ranked Baca as one of the seven most powerful people in American cannabis while the Brookings Institution...